Today we’re going to talk about how you can increase your revenue, by setting the right goals for your website and how you can actually profit from cold web traffic.
Podcast Version
Rush Transcript
Before we get started, let me give you an example of the end result of getting this right, ok. Have a look at these actual stats from a website we set up JUST a couple of days ago. This is obviously Google Analytics and here we can see that we’re already getting over a thousand visitors a day, to this brand new website.
Let me tell you about this ok, it’s pretty interesting. Before we did anything with this website, before we installed any themes, or published any content, before we did anything, the very first thing we did was decide on what the traffic level should be. In this case, for this website, we decided that 30,000 people a month would be a good figure to work with. That’s around a thousand people a day so we gave ourselves a week to hit that target, for the website to start receiving a thousand people a day. We actually smashed that target and got there on day 2, so the day AFTER it went live, we hit the target, and this is all organic too, which is amazing right?
As you can see we only started sending traffic to this site a couple of days ago, so the bounce rate is going to be high. And if we go down to see which languages the traffic speaks, so we see that 82% of the people who visit this site speak American English, – this is the most valuable type of traffic to have. Next, we see 9% are UK English, and then finally we see that 2% are Canadian English. So this means that more than 90% of the traffic is made up of English speaking visitors, and that’s very profitable traffic.
We actually want 70% of the traffic to come from just three countries. The goal we decided on at the start was that at least 70% of the total traffic would come from the USA, Canada, and the UK.
Now let’s confirm that at least 70% of the traffic is actually coming from those top three countries. And there we see that over 60% comes from the USA, 11% from Canada, and 7% comes from the UK. Now if we add all this up, we’re again smashing the target that we set, because 80% of the traffic comes from these countries.
Now, you might be thinking, what if all this was just a fluke? Well, to prove that setting goals are important, I’ll show you another example in a second.
But listen, I could show you the traffic I get to my flagship website, but I’m not going to do that because I think that would be unfair to you because that site has been online for ages, it gets millions of hits, I’ve never spent a penny on advertising, and it’s even had its own TV show – which is less exciting than it sounds, but it’s unlikely you’ll have that kind of leverage. So instead, I’m only showing you results from brand new websites, to show you what’s possible when you start setting goals. I only want to give you realistic targets that you’ve got an actual chance of achieving.
Ok, look at this site, which again is another brand new website – and this is collecting stats with Jetpack. I like using Jetpack because the data is right there inside the WordPress Dashboard, but I think it can slow down a blog. So, I don’t think I have to explain this too much, but the target we set for this website was again a thousand visitors a day, and again we smashed it. In fact, as you can see, we frequently get more than four times the amount of traffic we expected.
So, how did we do this? Well, it really all starts with setting the right goals. I mean think about it, when you invest your time into making awesome content that you feel proud of, and that you’re passionate about, you deserve to earn something back from it, right? The traffic sources don’t matter too much, as long it meets the right criteria which I’ll go through with you in a minute.
This is great because you can pull traffic from anyplace you like – and the thing is, not to get too hung up on any single traffic source. We can get traffic from anywhere really, social media, from the press, from search engines, from other blogs, it doesn’t really matter, there are loads of places we can get traffic, that’s the easy bit.
Knowing what types of traffic exist, and to do with each type is the tricky thing. This is important because if you don’t set the right targets then your website is just wandering aimlessly. That means it’s not getting the amount of traffic it needs, it’s not getting the right KIND of traffic, and it’s not making the revenue level you want. The cool thing is though, it’s up to you to set your own targets. That’s why we build websites and blogs and create content right? So we can live life on our own terms, and the website is a reflection of that, so you get to decide what kind of results you want.
So when you start setting goals, you know where you’re going, you know how much traffic you need, you know what kind of traffic to get and you know how much revenue that’ll make.
Now, from this point forward, I’m going to assume a few things ok. The first one is, I’m going to assume you know who your audience is. So many bloggers can’t answer this question, and if you still don’t know who’re audience is, go have a look through the Profit Copilot videos, and I’ll show you how to find out exactly who your target audience is.
This part is important because if you think that your audience includes EVERYBODY, that it’s a general, non-specific audience, or you think that your blog will appeal to everybody, then you’ll actually end up reaching nobody. The worst thing you can do is put content in front of someone who isn’t specifically interested in that type of content.
If you do that, you’ll repel traffic from your website, probably forever. I need to repeat that because I’m seeing some of you guys making this mistake. Choose a single topic for your blog, and publish content that’s ONLY about that topic. If your blog is about technology, don’t publish stuff about weight loss, unless there’s some angle that relates to technology. Keep your message consistent. Keep your content tightly focused on one area.
So if your blog isn’t getting any traction at the moment, double check that you’ve got this fundamental step done and you know exactly who you’re talking to. Go watch my videos about this and you’ll get it fixed. Ok, so I’m going to assume a few more things ok. I’m going to assume that you have a website and you’re creating some form of content. And then I’m going to assume that you have an advertising budget, even if it’s a small budget – this is probably how you’ll drive traffic to your site. Finally, I’m going to assume that you already have, or that you’re planning to have, some kind of sales engine or some way to generate revenue from your website. If you don’t have that yet, don’t worry, we’ll go through that in another video.
So with all that in mind, if you recall, I had a previous video where I showed you the three layers, the three levels of a sales funnel – I showed you how the top of the funnel is all about creating awareness, planting seeds, introducing people to your brand, to your content, and to your message.
Then I showed you the second stage, the middle of the funnel and that’s all about how people will start looking for solutions to their problems, they’ll be appraising products and they’ll be looking at yours. Then, finally, we have the bottom of the funnel, the conversion stage, where people become buyers.
Traffic Temperature
For each of these stages, we have a different type of traffic for each one. At the top of the funnel, we have cold traffic, at the middle of the funnel we have warm traffic and that the bottom of the funnel we have hot traffic.
Now, this isn’t anything new or groundbreaking, in fact, it’s the standard way things are done, right? It’s a tried and tested formula that most people use. That’s how we know it works, right? You know me and you know I only stick with the stuff that’s proven to work over a long period of time. And this is what works.
So, let’s dig a little deeper into the top layer, the top of the funnel because this is where you have the greatest amount of exposure, this is where your message will have the largest number of people consuming it. Most bloggers just live at this stage and some aren’t even aware that other levels exist.
Now, here we are dealing with cold traffic. That means most of the people who visit your website or see your adverts don’t know who you are, and they’ve never heard of you or your business. Cold traffic is important because it’s the lifeline of your business, it’s the new blood you’re putting into your business.
And I know that cold traffic isn’t as exciting as other types of traffic because it doesn’t generate immediate sales, but it is important because, without it, most of your revenue can dry up. If you’re not reaching out to new people, then you’re not getting fresh leads and you won’t make any sales, so your business will stop growing. And listen, if you have a new website or a new business, then all of your traffic is going to be cold.
So at this stage, at the top of the funnel, it’s all about creating awareness and seeding ideas. So you’re creating awareness about your business, you’re catching people’s attention and you’re giving them value. You’re also letting your visitors know that they might have a problem that you can help them with. And when you start delivering value, you start to build a relationship and start to build trust with them.
But a mistake that I’m seeing lots of people make, and even people who should really know better, people who’ve been at this stuff for a few years, I’m seeing lots of awesome bloggers and content creators pouring cold traffic on middle of the funnel offers, and even on bottom of the funnel offers.
Listen, guys, if you’re sending cold traffic to a sales page, and expecting people to buy from you without getting to know you first, then you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Sometimes I hear that a traffic source doesn’t work… for example, sometimes people will tell me that Facebook ads don’t work, or that Google Adwords don’t work. When I look at the system they’ve put in place, more often than not, it turns out that they’ve got the stack wrong.
Most of the time, they’re sending cold traffic to a sales page – which of course doesn’t work, and then they blame Facebook or whatever place they’re advertising on. If you’ve done that, or if you’re currently sending cold traffic to a sales page – and not getting the results you want, then stop. You’re not at the right stage of the relationship to ask for the sale, it’s like walking up to a complete stranger and asking them to trust you. It’s just not gonna happen, right?
So I’ve got a better way of doing things. The best way to approach cold traffic is to think of it as a way to introduce yourself. I personally use it as a way to say to people “hey there, my name is Mick and I’m going to show you how to make your website more profitable. Here’s what you’re going to learn from me that will enable you to do X, Y, and Z…”.
So there’s actually 3 things at work here, I’ll tell you about them in a second. Ok, so first let’s figure out what the goals of cold traffic should be, this is what you’re trying to achieve, what you’re trying to accomplish from your campaign.
Ok, I’ve just said the word ‘campaign’, all that really is, is just a way to engage someone and run them through a sequence of events that results with them buying your product, or taking whatever action you want them to. And since, we’re talking about campaigns, the truth is, every stage of your funnel is just a different type of campaign. And they’re really easy to do. If you’ve been following my videos then you’ll already know how easy they are to make.
So now we’re going to talk about the goals of your cold traffic campaign.
There are three steps here; the first one is to introduce yourself, then we pixel, and then finally we segment. I’ll go through each of these in more detail now.
The first goal is obviously to introduce your brand and deliver value. We put your message in front of the people who want to hear it, then you deliver value which builds trust, and establishes you as an authority. The second goal is to deliver a pixel to your audience. That means when someone visits your website, they’ve expressed some kind of interest in you, right? So we use a small piece of code, don’t worry, the code is just copy and paste, it’s really simple, and it lets you re-engage people after they’ve left your website.
How it works, is like this, let’s say someone visits your website and reads a blog post. You can then run ads on social media that will show up for that person. So you take cold traffic and you pixel them, so you can continue the conversation with them at a later time. Even if you’re not running ads at the moment, it’s still a good idea to pixel your audience because Facebook collects that information, and you can get a better idea of what your visitors are interested in.
The third goal is segmentation. Now, this is really clever because you’re targeting the specific interests of your audience. This is really powerful. It works like this, imagine that someone reads one of your blog posts and it’s about… house-training a labrador dog. Let’s pretend that your website is about dog training, and your visitor is reading a blog post about Labradors. We know they are specifically interested in Labradors. So we look at dog training as a broad topic, and labradors could be a sub-niche. This allows you to make specific offers to that person. Another example could be, let’s say you have a technology blog and it’s all about phones. So phones would be the broad topic, and you’d have subtopics – like iPhone and Android.
So with this formula, you’re introducing yourself first, and delivering value, then you’re sending a pixel your audience so you can re-engage them later on, and then you’re segmenting them so you know their specific interest, so you know which offer to make to them.
So that’s incredibly powerful, right? Now we need to know what to say to the cold traffic, we need to know what to talk about. We need to know what kind of offers to make, and by that, I don’t just mean what products to sell them, I also mean blog posts and PDF reports and videos, and anything else that you can give them.
This is important because, if it’s not something that’s of interest to your visitor, no matter how great your ad is, and now matter how great you are at getting traffic, it won’t matter because your visitors just won’t respond to it.
So I’m going to give you a list of the most common types of content to give to cold traffic. So the first one is also the most obvious, and that’s blog posts. And this can be educational or practical, it can help them to solve a problem or show them how to do something. At this stage you’re not asking them to do anything yet, you’re giving them something of value up front, without asking for anything in return. So this type of content is great to give them first because it helps them to see you as an authority.
Ok, the second type of content we can deliver to cold traffic is a social media update, just a promoted post on Facebook is enough and it’s a great way to show the personality of your business and to really speak to your target audience. They are also great ways to grab attention. Next, we have videos, these are similar to blog posts because it’s a great way to teach people.
Then we have podcasts, another great way to prove that you know what you’re talking about before you ask them to buy anything. We’ve also got a quiz and a survey, both awesome to give to cold traffic because they interest people.
And then finally there are lead magnets. So we can give away content in exchange for email addresses. So you give them something that they want and something that they find helpful. I’d be cautious about using Lead magnets at this stage because sometimes they’re better used on warm traffic.
You see, lead magnets can be used for both cold traffic AND warm traffic, so they’re ok if you need to generate leads quickly, but you’ll get better results with warm traffic. You see, I didn’t want to leave this stuff out because lead magnets exist in both stages, but generally, the top of the funnel is all about providing value before asking your traffic for anything in return. This can vary from niche to niche, so if you’re in a business to business niche, you might be better off with using a lead market up front.
I’ve personally had good results with offering a lead magnet first, so it might be something you want to test for yourself. Some markets respond really well to these.
So to help you really understand the process, let’s have a look at an example. Here we’ve got a Facebook ad from Thrive Themes. Now I love these guys, they inspire me and I really like their style. So this is one of their ads that I see in my news feed, and as you can see it’s just a normal ad and it links to a video they made. They’re just giving away valuable content and building a relationship that way. It’s a short 10 or 12-minute educational video. Really simple stuff right?
Of course, they encourage visitors to go further into the sales funnel on this page, they invite people to subscribe to their mailing list. But at this stage, at the top of the funnel, I would guess that this content is also being used to pixel the traffic, so they can start selling to it later on.
Ok, here’s another example for you, and this one is from copywriting course – another company that I’m happy to endorse because they do awesome stuff. And again, it’s a straightforward Facebook ad, and this one also links to a page full of content and establishes the trust that way.
Right, one final example, just to demonstrate the point one last time. Here we can see a Facebook ad from Active Campaign. Another company that I respect and admire, and as you can see, the ad links to a page full of content that delivers massive value up front.
Ok, so, all these companies have a few things in common. They’re all industry leaders, they’re all highly trusted and respected, and they all deliver value first, before asking for a sale.
Well ok then, so now you know how to benefit from cold traffic, and you know it’s the starting point for most websites, so you know how to embrace it and you know how to use it to your advantage. So; know who your audience is, and no matter how you’re diving traffic to your site, decide on a realistic number to aim for to keep your traffic levels somewhat consistent – and then you have some basic figures to work with.
Then we’ve got the three steps to engaging cold traffic, which is to introduce yourself while delivering value – which in turn builds trust, then pixel your audience so you can follow up with them again later on, and lastly segment them so you’re giving the right offers to the right people.
I’ve also showed you the right kind of content to provide to cold traffic, so blog posts, social media updates, videos, surveys and quizzes all work great. And lead magnets can be used too. And then finally I gave you some examples of how leading companies manage their ‘top of funnel’ strategies. So you’ve seen how Thrive Themes does it, how Copywriting Course does it, and how Active Campaigns does things.
Right, that’s a lot of stuff, isn’t it? So you’ve probably got some new ideas, and fresh motivation and inspiration. So I’ll call it a day for the moment so you can get rolling with this stuff and start seeing amazing results.
Ok great, I hope you’ve found this to be of awesome value and if you have found this useful, you might like my other videos and podcasts that will help you get outstanding results, and you can get them when you sign up at profitcopilot.com/subscribe.
Thank you for joining me today and I’ll see you again next time.